Eric Hoenes

Religion and culture; ethnography of religion; language and communication

Eric Hoenes del Pinal (B.A. Boston University; Ph.D. University of California, San Diego) joined the UNC Charlotte faculty in 2013. Trained as a cultural and linguistic anthropologist, his approach to the study of religion is strongly ethnographic, with an emphasis on the role of language and non-verbal forms of communication in shaping human interaction. His research interests include the study of global Christianity, the politics of language and culture, and the ethnography of Latin America with special emphasis on indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. In Guarded by Two Jaguars: A Catholic Parish Divided by Language and Faith he examines the roles of language and non-verbal forms of communication in creating congregational differences between Q’eqchi’-Maya Mainstream and Charismatic Catholics. He is also the co-editor along with Marc Roscoe Loustau and Kristin Norget of Mediating Catholicism: Media in Global Catholic Imaginaries, which examines processes of Catholics’ practices of mediatization in the contemporary world.  Dr. Hoenes del Pinal’s current research project examines the intersection of Catholic and indigenous understandings of human-nature relations in the face of climate change.

Selected Publications:

Guarded by Two Jaguars: A Catholic Parish Divided by Language and Faith. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Mediating Catholicism: Religion and Media in Global Catholic Imaginaries. Ed. w/ Marc Roscoe Loustau and Kristin Norget. New York: Bloomsbury

Data: Learning How to Ask, See, and Feel. In Brendan J. Thornton and Eric Hoenes del Pinal, eds. “Critical Terms for the Ethnography of Religion.” Special issue of Fieldwork in Religion 17(1): 37-46. 2022. Open Access

The Promises and Perils of Radio as a Medium of Faith in a Q’eqchi’-Maya Catholic Community. Journal of Global Catholicism. 3(2): 42-63. 2019.

Reading Laudato Si’ in the Verapaz: A Case of Localizing Catholic Teachings. Exchange: Journal of Contemporary Christianities in Context. 48(3): 291-301. 2019.

Responding to Yourself 16 Weeks Later. Teaching Theology & Religion. 22(3): 205. 2019.

Cuatro Estampas. The Abeng: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Criticism. 2(1): 61-65. 2018.

Returning to the Tzuultaq’a. Anthropology and Humanism. 42(1): 25-27. 2017.

The Paradox of Charismatic Catholicism: Rupture and Continuity in a Q’eqchi’-Maya Parish. Under review for The Anthropology of Catholicism. K. Norget, V. Napolitano, and M. Mayblin, eds. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 170-183. 2017

Charlotte in Five Tamales: Unwrapping Cultural Geography. w/ Tom Hanchett. Gravy: A Quarterly Publication from the Southern Foodways Alliance 62: 15-21. 2016

A Ritual Interrupted: A Case of Contested Ritual Practices in a Q’eqchi’-Maya Catholic Parish. Journal of Contemporary Religion. 31(3): 365-378. 2016.

From Vatican II to Speaking in Tongues: Theology and Language Policy in a Q’eqchi’-Maya Catholic Parish. Language Policy. 15: 179-197. 2016.

Notes on a Maya Apocalypse: Eschatology in the Guatemalan Civil War. The Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue 8: 18-28. February 2012.

Towards an Ideology of Gesture: Gestures, Body Movement and Language Ideology among Q’eqchi’-Maya Catholics. In “Beyond Logos: Extensions of the Language Ideology Paradigm in the Study of Global Christianity(-ies),” Special Section of Anthropological Quarterly 84 (3): 595-630. Summer 2011.

How Q’eqchi’-Maya Catholics Become Legitimate Interpreters of the Bible: Two Models of Religious Authority in the Giving of Sermons. In The Social Life of Scripture: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Biblicism. James Bielo, ed. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, pg. 80-99. 2009.